Eric Adams’s Idiot Lawyer Just Undermined His Own Defense
New York City Mayor Eric Adams’s lawyer is trying to get his federal bribery allegations dismissed by arguing that even if the mayor did accept gifts and favors from one Turkish official for years, it didn’t constitute bribery because it happened before Adams was elected mayor.
Alex Spiro, Adams’s attorney with a long list of celebrity clients, argued in a filing Monday that the bribery charge against Adams should be dismissed. He argued that the alleged scheme did not satisfy the definition of bribery because Adams’s agreement to receive free and discounted travel and accommodations from a senior Turkish official was not quid pro quo in exchange for an official act.
Rather, Spiro argued that Adams’s indictment simply alleged that he had “agreed to generally assist with the ‘operation’ or ‘regulation’ of a Turkish consulate building in Manhattan, where he had no authority whatsoever, in exchange for travel benefits.”
Spiro cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in Snyder v. United States in June, which found that it is not illegal under federal anti-bribery law for state and local officials to accept gratuities for acts they have already taken. This decision, which overturned the conviction of a former Indiana mayor, substantially weakened the government’s ability to pursue federal anti-bribery complaints and challenge corruption.
According to the indictment, Adams had been receiving benefits in the form of travel perks and straw-man donations long before the Turkish official allegedly tried to cash in on them. But Spiro argued that because one favor did not directly result in another, Adams’s alleged behavior does not constitute bribery, as the government accused in the indictment.
During a press conference Monday, Spiro tried to downplay the allegations against Adams, while seeming to confirm that the mayor had in fact received travel perks, as alleged.
“In the events in question, Mayor Adams was the Brooklyn borough president. He was not the mayor, he wasn’t even the mayor-elect, and the position of Brooklyn borough president does not have vast powers,” Spiro said. “It has, frankly, very little.”
Spiro made no mention of allegations that those very same Turkish officials, who had allegedly given Adams so many freebies, had helped to illegally fund his ascendancy to a higher office.
Adams, who was once lauded as the future of the Democratic Party, has been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals. He was also charged with one count of wire fraud, two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national, and one count of bribery.